Building Confidence in Young Athletes

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Ted Theocheung, CEO of the Specialized Foundation, about recent studies that show how exercise boosts brain function, attention and concentration in kids with ADHD--and everyone else. The foundation has partnered with Stanford University to fund research to better understand the effects of exercise on brain function and cognition in children with ADHD. During the interview, the experts stress that exercise helps all kids with brain function and concentration.

Dr. Kate Lund, a psychologist, performance coach and author of "Bounce -- Help Your Child Build Resilience and Thrive in School, Sports and Life," explains the importance of resilience in kids' lives and gives tips for building resilience.

Jamy Bechler, a former college basketball coach and author of “The Leadership Playbook: Be Your Team’s Most Valuable Leader,” provides advice about how to build strong leaders in sports. And they don't have to be team captains!

Girls drop out of sports at a rate that's six times higher than boys, research shows. In this podcast, Lisa Cohn, host of Ultimate Sports Parent Radio, interviews Samantha Salvia, a World Champion Ultimate Frisbee player who leads Positive Coaching Alliance workshops for coaches, athletes, and sports parents in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Benjamin Dudley, sports dad, coach and executive director for the Portland Chapter of the Positive Coaching Alliance. They address why girls are dropping out and how the trend can be reversed.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews former NBA player Bob Bigalow, author of "Just Let the Kids Play," and "Youth Sports: Still Failing Our Kids," about the challenges in youth sports today. He and mental game coach Dr. Patrick Cohn discuss how parents can help kids feel happy and confident in youth sports, rather than being over-involved.

Often, sports kids lose confidence if they don’t do well during pregame warmups. This is especially true of perfectionists, who want to get everything just right all the time. In this interview with mental game coach Dr. Patrick Cohn, parents learn that sports kids don’t need to win pregame warmups—and how to deal with perfectionists who think they do need to win them.

In this Ultimate Sports Radio podcast episode, mental game coach Dr.

Patrick Cohn discusses how the pregame jitters can help kids focus better

and boost their energy just before a game. However, sometimes those

butterflies and sweaty palms are more than just jitters; they2019re

actually performance anxiety.Visit www.Ultimatesportsparent.com and stay

tuned for our new 10-Minute Pregame Prep program

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Bob Jordan, a youth sports coach of

35 years who in the 1960s asked the mothers of his football players to learn

how to play the sport. What did they learn? Learn more about Jordan and his

books for moms by listening!

Sports kids need to walk away from games with renewed confidence—or at least with their confidence intact. In the third of our series of podcasts about post-game tips for sports parents, that’s the idea we want parents and coaches to embrace.